Celebrating Black KidLit Creators

 We're celebrating Black history and sharing our stories all year long, right? Right. So we curated a list of 50 Black kidlit creators who should be on your radar and your bookshelf.

Click the image below for a video highlighting the authors and illustrators listed.

(Listed in the order they are pictured in the video)

George Ford, illustrator (Bright Eyes, Brown Skin)

Jacqueline Woodson, author (The Year We Learned to Fly)

Floyd Cooper, author-illustrator (Max and the Tag-Along Moon)

Wade Hudson, author (Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South)

Rita Williams-Garcia, author (A Sitting in St. James)

Pat Cummings, author-illustrator (Trace)

Cheryl Willis Hudson, author (Recognize! An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life)

Eric Velasquez, author-illustrator (Octopus Stew)

Renee Watson, author (She Persisted: Oprah Winfrey)

Jason Reynolds, author (Stuntboy in the Meantime)

Laura Freeman, illustrator (Kwame Nkrumah and the Midnight Speech for Independence)

Javaka Steptoe, illustrator (Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat))

Nikki Grimes, author (Kamala Harris: Rooted In Justice)

Kwame Alexander, author (The Undefeated)

Sharon M. Draper, author (Out of My Heart)

James Ransome, illustrator (Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams)

Joyce Hansen, author (African Princess)

Derrick Barnes, author (I Am Every Good Thing)

Kelly Starling Lyons, author (Sing A Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations)

Vanessa Brantley Newton, author-illustrator (Just Like Me)

Walter Dean Myers, author (Monster)

Ibi Zoboi, author (The People Remember)

Sharon Flake, author (The Life I’m In)

Jerry Pinkney, illustrator (The Little Mermaid)

Virginia Hamilton, author (Her Story: African American Folktales, Fairies and True Tales)

Kwame Mbalia, author (Tristan Strong Destroys the World

Diane Lewis Patrick, author (Mekena: See Me, Hear Me, Know Me)

Frank Morrison, illustrator (R-E-S-P-E-C-T Aretha Franklin The Queen of Soul)

Marilyn Nelson, author (Papa’s Free Day Party)

Tony Media, author (Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy)

Tracey Baptiste, author (African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History)

Jerry Craft, author-illustrator (Class Act)

Carole Boston Weatherford, author (Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre)

Gordon James, illustrator (Let ‘Er Buck)

Mildred Taylor, author (All the Days Past, All the Days To Come)

John Steptoe, author-illustrator (Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters)

Nic Stone, author (Clean Getaway)

Andrea Davis Pickney, author (Martin Rising: Requiem for a King)

EB Lewis, illustrator (Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis)

Dhonielle Clayton, author (The Everlasting Rose)

Kadir Nelson, illustrator (Coretta Scott)

Zetta Elliott, author (The Witch’s Apprentice)

Shane Evans, illustrator (Hands Up)

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, author (Operation Sisterhood)

Jabari Asim, author (Yonder)

Tonya Bolden, author (Saving Savannah)

Bryan Collier, illustrator (We Shall Overcome)

James Haskins, author (Freedom Rides: Journey for Justice)

Eloise Greenfield, author (The Women Who Caught the Babies)

Angie Thomas, author (Concrete Rose)